Felipe Estefan

Felipe Estefan has dedicated his career to the intersection of democracy, media and technology. Currently, his work focuses on narrative change as a path to promoting mutual understanding, fostering belonging, and reimagining democracy in a digital age. For the past decade, Estefan was part of Luminate – a global philanthropic organization – where he most recently served as Vice President for Narrative Change and regional Vice President for Latin America. In the context of that role, Estefan financed and supported 100+ projects around the world on civic engagement, human rights, digital rights, governance of AI & social media, anti-corruption, journalism, and narrative change. Estefan has also served as Executive Producer in several films, including The Territory (Emmy Winner / NatGeo), State of Silence (Tribeca Selection / Netflix) and the forthcoming Apocalypse in the Tropics (Telluride Selection / Netflix). Prior to his time at Luminate, Estefan was the World Bank’s Open Government Strategist, focused on efforts to increase government transparency and accountability around the globe. As part of that role, he was a co-founder of the Open Contracting Partnership – an international organization focused on improving public procurement. Before that, he was a Producer at CNN and CNN en Español, and held advisory and fellowship roles in the Mexican Film Institute and the Permanent Mission of Colombia to the United Nations in Switzerland. Estefan has a Master of Science in Public Relations from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and a Master of Arts in International Relations from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, both at Syracuse University. He holds a B.A. in Media & Society and International Relations from Hobart College, where his honors thesis focused on the role of film in cultural diplomacy. While at Shorenstein, he will be conducting research into the potential for new funding models to improve the sustainability and impact of narrative media produced in the public interest.